La emigración venezolana como estrategia de reproducción social y su concreción en España entre 1998-2015factores determinantes

Laburpena

Nearly two decades ago, migrants from Venezuela were not object of study within the migration field. Given the country’s possibilities, Venezuela was the preferred destination of many Latin American collectives and, half a century ago, it was also the preferred destination of Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and citizens from other nationalities. The country received them with open arms and gave them the possibility of a new start. From 1998 onwards, as a consequence of the beginning of a political and ideological change, the immigration phenomenon has taken a turn, and Venezuela became a sending, instead of a receiving country. The number of Venezuelans who left the country raised sharply, with Spain being the second country preferred by those migrants. This doctoral thesis aims at a better understanding of this reality. The analysis of the political, social and economic context of Venezuela between 1998 and 2015. The study of secondary sources, reveals that the socialist model of the XXI century (better known as Chavismo) activate a new social phenomenon which results in emigration. As this investigation is limited to Spain, official figures of the growing numbers of this population in the Spanish context between 1998 and 2015 are presented, underlining the significant rising of the Venezolano community during these years. Through the study of primary sources, it is identified that the factors that motivated the majority of the Venezuelan people to leave their country, are directly related to the political, social and economic situation of the country, especially with regards to the first two dimensions. Furthermore, the level of integration of the Venezuelans in Spain is measured through several aspects, namely, the degree of integration in the labour market, the access to housing, education, health, and social and cultural participation. The descriptive analysis of the results obtained from the fieldwork reveals that the greatest motivation to migrate to Spain is the possibility of entering legally, as a result of having double nationality: most of them have the Spanish nationality or, in a smaller scale, a nationality of another country from the European Union. This aspect is related to the fact that many Venezolanos inherited the Spanish nationality, as well as, the Spanish costumes and traditions through their fathers or grandfathers. In a similar way, the findings from the fieldwork, together with the analysis from secondary sources, confirm that both the economic capital, together with the high professional level brought by those migrants, facilitates the access to the labour market. Finally, the present study aims to typify the lifestyle in Spain in order to relate the emigration as a strategy to reproduce or to improve the life conditions that they had in Venezuela. The construction of a level of social reproduction, and the correspondence analysis, reveal that in the host country, an important part of the Venezolanos maintain their social and economic position. Also, there is a direct relationship between the social reproduction obtained and the perception of the success of the migratory project.